As a remedial agent, water is of far greater value than any other liquid
taken into the stomach. Its uses in preserving health have been
previously noticed. Under ordinary circumstances, a person in health who
discards irritating condiments from his diet seldom requires drink. Many
persons take no drink whatever during the winter months. But drinking is
healthful, and pure water of proper temperature may be taken by any one
in health or disease if it is taken in the proper manner. Drinking at
meals is an unwholesome practice. Drinking large quantities of iced
water is unhealthful. Cold water should not be taken freely when the
drinker is hot or exhausted. The thirst will be quenched as readily by
slowly sipping a small quantity. In fevers, water should be freely
allowed. A glass of cool water taken half an hour before breakfast is an
excellent remedy for habitual constipation.
Water-drinking may be made a means of bathing the internal structures,
as external applications bathe the outside. Water is rapidly absorbed by
the mucous membrane of the stomach, and, passing through the
circulation, it dissolves many impurities, and is eliminated chiefly by
the kidneys and skin. It can be used with benefit in connection with the
vapor bath, hot-air bath, and all baths in which sweating is induced. It
should not be used in such great excess as it was employed by the early
hydropathists, however, whose patients drank from ten to thirty glasses
of water a day.
Free drinking of water is useful in cases in which the urine is scanty
and irritating. It gives relief by diluting the urinary excretions.